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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23836354">I Won't Give Your Heart Away</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/grunge_ish/pseuds/grunge_ish'>grunge_ish</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TAZ Songfics [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Adventure Zone (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Davenport needs more attention, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Merle is Bad at Love, Past Merle/Hecuba, Past Merle/John, Songfic, Y'all fucking sleep on him</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:26:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,172</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23836354</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/grunge_ish/pseuds/grunge_ish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Davenport and Merle play cards every time Davenport comes back to the continent. Merle tells Davenport about his failed experiences in love. </p><p>Davenport falls hard enough to break at least three bones and then just keeps falling.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Davenport/Merle Highchurch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TAZ Songfics [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Won't Give Your Heart Away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Davenport's POV</p><p>This on is based on Daisy by Zedd. It's one of my favorite songs so I had to give it to Dav, because he fucking deserves it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>   Davenport raised his hand to knock on the door to Merle's beach house but before he could, Mookie pulled the door open really fast and leapt onto Davenport, knocking him over completely. Mookie hugged Davenport and then got off of him.</p><p>   "Davenport! Davenport! Did ya get me anything? What'd ya get me??" Davenport laughed at Mookie's antics and pulled out two things, a plush and durable stuffed voidfish, and a leather bound book. "Woah! This is the Voidfish! That's so cool!" Mookie launched himself at Davenport, but this time he was ready and he caught the young dwarf with ease. "Thank you!!" Mookie's yelling summoned Mavis from inside the house and when she saw Davenport, she smiled sweetly.</p><p>   "Hi Captain Davenport. Dad's upstairs, but I can go get him for you?" Davenport shook his head and put Mookie down.</p><p>   "I'll go up to him. But before that, you didn't think I had forgotten about you?" Davenport handed her the leather bound book, it was an ancient mythos book written in the Old Language. Mavis's eyes lit up as she took it, but before she could thank him, he was already walking upstairs. When he got there, Merle was setting up the card game that they always played with each other. As Merle set the cards up carefully, Davenport felt that old and familiar feeling of his heart doing flips in his chest, but he pushed it down like he always did. He had no time for that kind of thing. </p><p>   "Hey Dav? Are you just gonna stand there or are we going to play cards?" Davenport had been so distracted by convincing his feelings to stop existing that he didn't notice when Merle turned around and noticed him.</p><p>   "Sorry. I was just thinking about how to let you know that I'm about to kick your ass in cards." They both laughed and took seats that the table. Merle was always the dealer, because he insisted.</p><p>   "I can't believe you think you're gonna beat me in cards. I've won the last six times we played!" Davenport piled his cards up and looked through them with excitement. He cared very little about the actual playing of the cards and much more about spending the time with Merle.</p><p>   "Your age must be getting to you! Because as far as I can remember, I have beaten you almost every time we've played. Including the last six times." Merle rolled his eyes, but Davenport knew that he was right. They began playing and were quiet for a few rounds before Davenport broke the silence. "So, what have you been doing recently? I know about the earlship and the adventuring business, but what's been going on with just you?"</p><p>    Merle took a few seconds to respond. "I've actually been dusting off my old suits and trying to date again. I love my kids more than anything on this planet or any other, but I get lonely you know?" Davenport nodded. "Well, your first love is adventure, so you don't really get it." Merle joked and they both laughed, but Davenport thought about all the trips he had been on, all the thing he had seen and all the downtime between. He had been very lonely, but he pushed that feeling down to enjoy his time. "After everything that happened with Hecuba and then with John, I've just been practically scared shitless of dating, but I'm trying nonetheless."</p><p>    Davenport loved Merle's stories, mainly because he told them with such abandon, he made up parts and you never could really tell what was true unless you were actually there. "You mean John 'The Hunger'? Are we talking about the same John?" Merle nodded.</p><p>    "I know it sounds crazy, but it's true! John and I had a thing going on for a good portion of Stolen Century. If he had even gotten his head out of his ass, I think it'd would've been a beautiful relationship, but he didn't realize that I knew what I was talking about until it was way too late." Merle stopped for a second. "I miss him a lot though. Sometimes I think I see his face when I talk to parents or any of my subjects, but it quickly goes away." Merle continued playing, but his eye was clouded. "I'm probably deluding myself about it being a relationship in the first place, but it sure felt like one." Davenport didn't really know how to respond. Merle looked far away and Davenport felt, jealous. He was jealous of the fucking Hunger for having a relationship with Merle. That was a new low for him.</p><p>    "I had no idea. I'm sorry for your loss?" Davenport looked at the clock behind Merle and noticed that he only had around ten minuets left here.</p><p>    "It's really no big deal Dav. He turned into a real bastard for a while there and it's his fault any of this happened to us, so fuck him." The faraway look in his eye was gone and he was smiling. Davenport felt himself smile too. "Also, I noticed you looking at the clock. You don't have a lot of time on continent do you?" Davenport shook his head. "How about we get some grub then? Lunch is soon and I'm starving."</p><p>    "Yeah that sounds great." Merle got up and Davenport followed him. They went downstairs and to the dinning room to get some lunch. Merle made sandwiches for both of them and then ate his in around two bites. Davenport ate much slower.</p><p>    "So, when are you going to be in town next?" Davenport ran through his schedule in his head.</p><p>    "It'll be about another month. Why? Do you have something planned?" Merle shrugged.</p><p>    "Mavis's birthday is in two months, and it would really mean a lot to her if you were there." Merle winked at him and whispered. "Sometimes I think she likes you better than me. And I don't blame her." Davenport laughed and promised that he would be at Mavis's birthday party. Then his time was up and he left, somehow feeling more lonely than he ever had before.</p><p>    Next month, he went to knock on Merle's door and actually succeeded this time. It was even Merle who opened the door. "You old coot" he said, letting Davenport in, "you're late! Luckily for you, the kids' mom has them right now."</p><p>    "I'll just leave their presents here." He set a bag on the kitchen counter and went upstairs to play cards with Merle. After they played a round or two in silence, Davenport asked a question that had been burning in his mind for a while. "What happened between you and Hecuba?" Merle sighed and looked up at Davenport.</p><p>    "Who are you? Lucretia trying to write a book on failed romances? It was just a bad match. She's stubborn and inflexible, I'm stubborn and stupid. She got mad easily, I hate making other people mad. That kind of stuff. It was a traditional dwarf marriage, meaning that we didn't know each other until the day before, and we got on just fine. Then the honeymoon phase ended." Merle rolled his shoulders and Davenport feared that he had gone too far. "She was already pregnant with Mavis when we got married and so her birth wasn't soon after the first year. Hecuba and I started fighting a lot and it was just an all around bad time. Then Mookie was conceived after a failed make-up attempt and I stayed just long enough for him to turn 1 before I got out of there as quickly as possible. Hecuba never went after me, and I still can't look her completely in the eye." Davenport felt bad for Merle.</p><p>    "She has to understand. I mean, she never went after you, so it was probably something she wanted too. Don't beat yourself up. You're an amazing dad to Mavis and Mookie and they love you. They know you're doing your best." Merle smiled at Davenport and under the thousands of excuses Davenport attempted to hide his feelings behind, he felt his heart swell. "Plus, it's not like you haven't spent at least a few years fixing up what you kind of ruined."</p><p>    "Welll......" Merle laughed and then nodded. "Thanks Dav. I needed that. Somehow you always know what to say to cheer this old dwarf up."</p><p>    "Speaking of cheering up an old dwarf, how's your search for love coming?" They had both put down their cards at this point and were just talking. </p><p>    "Not incredibly, unsurprisingly. I'm an old dwarf who's slightly famous with a missing arm, a missing eye, and two kids. Not exactly anyone's dream date." Davenport nodded, chuckling, but internally he was screaming. There was a possibility for him to confess his feelings but he pushed that thought down and Merle continued speaking. "I'm not giving up though. Mavis is especially excited for me to finally settle down. She's been telling me get a partner ever since I mentioned that I missed spending time with Taako and Magnus." Davenport actually laughed at that.</p><p>     "You have to be a special type of lonely to want to hang out with Taako and Magnus. Both of them still give me headaches." Merle laughed with him and Davenport had never felt more at home. He shook his head and looked over at the clock. He had another boat to pilot in a few minutes, and he opened his mouth to tell Merle this but Merle was already speaking.</p><p>     "I just remembered a story that I probably haven't told anyone in a long time. Do you remember the first church of Fungston?" Davenport nodded, intrigued. "Well, there was this little girl, who's name I can't remember for the life of me, but she was blessed by some deity and she told me that I would have success in love when I stopped looking for it. That's so weird right? How can you find love if you don't look for it?" Davenport made a confused face and nodded. </p><p>     "Yeah that's pretty weird. And I hate to leave on that note, but I need to go. Duty calls." Davenport got out of his chair and halfway down the stairs when Merle yelled down at him. </p><p>     "Use your boat bathroom and not mine! I don't want to clean it again!" Davenport laughed at his crude humor and left, his excuses still piling up and his emotions still shining through them.</p><p>      Next month, he didn't knock at all, because there was a party going on around the front of the house. Davenport had two bags full of presents for Mavis and a singular present for Mookie, because it wasn't his birthday. He spotted the birthday girl at the same time she spotted him and she ran at him with her arms open.</p><p>      "Captain Davenport! You made it!" He hugged her as tightly as he could with bags in each of his hands and she pulled away after a moment.</p><p>      "Of course I did! I wouldn't miss this for the world." She was smiling so much that Davenport was worried that she was going to hurt her face.</p><p>      "My dad's inside. He has all the presents. You can take them to him." Davenport nodded and went off to find Merle. He found him almost instantly, He was happily counting the presents that he had stacked on the dinning room table.</p><p>      "That's a lot of presents." Merle turned to Davenport and Davenport smiled. "And I have even more." Merle laughed and took the presents from him.</p><p>      "Mavis must've been super happy to see you." Davenport nodded.</p><p>      "Not to brag, but she totally was." Merle rolled his eyes and stacked Davenport's presents on the growing stack</p><p>      "You know, with all the questions you been asking me about my love life, I'd love to hear some of your stories." Merle looked expectantly at him and Davenport just shrugged awkwardly.</p><p>      "I've never actually dated anyone." Merle looked at him and he looked genuinely shocked.</p><p>      "There's no way! Dav you're lying. You're one of the most dateable people I know! How have you never dated?"</p><p>      Davenport shrugged again. "I was always too focused on work to be lonely." On the outside, Davenport looked collected and calm, but on the inside he was losing his mind. Maybe his affections weren't so one-sided after all. "But did you say that I was dateable?"</p><p>      Merle nodded sagely. "Oh yeah definitely."</p><p>      Davenport took a deep breath and then did the thing that he had been wanting to do for over a century. "If that's so, then how about we go get drinks tomorrow? I have the whole week off." Merle looked at him for a second and Davenport started thinking that he had made a grave mistake. </p><p>      Then Merle smiled. "I'd love to Dav."</p><p>      Davenport's face broke into the biggest smile he had ever worn. "I won't end up as a failed love-story you tell over a game of cards. I promise, I won't give your heart away."</p><p>      "You'd better not."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How did I end up writing two old men falling in love at 3 am on a Saturday? </p><p>Also, Dav is great with kids and you can tear that headcannon from my cold, dead, and decaying hands.</p><p>HOW IS THIS THE LONGEST "SHORT" FIC I'VE WRITTEN SO FAR?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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